HALIFAX -- With the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Newfoundland and Labrador, some on the other side of the Cabot Strait in Cape Breton consider it a cautionary tale.

“I don’t think they expected it over there, so it could happen here I guess,” says Bruce Olson.

Since February 8, Newfoundland Labrador have reported 295 new cases of COVID-19, while the other three Maritimes provinces have combined to report just 70 new cases during that time frame.

"The Newfoundland outbreak shows how quickly fortunes can turn during a pandemic, and the need for all of us to remain vigilant against the further spread of this virus," said Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick's Chief Medical Officer of Health during a news update on Tuesday. "Driven by the U.K. variant of the virus, an outbreak that started at a school sports tournament has resulted in more than 200 infections in less than a week, and put the entire province of Newfoundland and Labrador into lockdown." 

There are some out there who would say Maritimers are still being pretty cautious when it comes to COVID-19 precautions, but others would argue that COVID complacency has started to set in.

“Yeah, some people maybe,” says one Sydney resident.

“No, I think we’re all doing great,” says Mary Kay MacLeod. “Some people slip a little bit, we all do, so we just have to be more conscious so that we don’t slip.”

Experts say either way, what’s happening in Newfoundland and Labrador is a reminder not to let our guard down.

“I’m fairly certain we have all gotten a little bit more relaxed,” says Dr. Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease specialist. “It’s real hard to look at zero, one, two cases everyday and feel like you’re in real danger.”

Barrett says we need look no further than Newfoundland and Labrador for proof that even in a province where daily case numbers are low, a COVID variant can still be present.

“Do I think we need to be very, very aware that there’s a variant nearby? Absolutely,” says Barrett.

As we approach one year of living under pandemic conditions, some experts say there is a risk of ‘COVID burnout’.

“Burnout is about emotional exhaustion, feeling detached or cynical, like ‘what’s the point?’” explains Dr. Dayna Lee-Bagley, a registered psychologist.

Lee-Bagley says that now that the region has seen example of how quickly things can turn, behaviours will probably change – but there are problems with that too.

“Distress will cause short-term behaviour change, and so it will prompt us to do things in the short run, but it doesn’t prompt sustained behaviour change,” says Lee-Bagley.

Since we’re in this for the long haul, what might motivate longer-term change?

“What we actually want people to think about are your reasons for wanting to help try to control COVID. That might be to protect somebody who is vulnerable, maybe someone you know, or it could even be wanting to protect the economy,” says Lee-Bagley.

As for what we can do to be safer, Dr. Barrett says with variants having been identified in all four Atlantic provinces, masking and distancing are as important as ever.

“We know those things work against the variant, and we should really step up our game on that right now,” says Barrett.

Barrett also recommends that people download Canada’s COVID-19 Alert App onto their smartphones, and get used to using it, explaining that the app could come in handy if we do see public exposure of the variant strains.